The Darklight Marauder
by Paladine
Summary: One hundred years have passed since his exile. One hundred years is a long time to hold something like betrayal and grief in your heart. Follow the trials and tribulations of Ryosuke Kobayashi on a quest he isn't even aware he is undertaking.


**The Blacklight Marauder**

** Admittedly starting off a bit dark, but I hope everyone gets the eventual message I'm trying to convey. I apologize for any typos it's currently late and I'm tired.**

**Western Karakura Town**

Kimika Takahiko raged at the world around her.

The once lovely apartment was now the center of a scene of utter chaos. Family photos had been ripped off the walls with such force that the nails holding them left long, jagged tears in the plaster as they flew across the living room and shattered. Trophies, vases, and dishes had left their resting places and shattered with enough force to embed shrapnel up to an inch and anything unfortunate enough to be in it's path, including her father. The sofa went flying out the window and nearly took her mother with it, when it landed three stories below on the unforgiving street it had snapped in half. Even her own fish tank had now been spared, her once beloved fish now lay lifeless on the soaked white rug after gasping their last frantic breaths. No room had been spared, nearly everything was ruined, and her once happy family was now huddled behind a meager fortification and praying their salvation would arrive soon.

A month ago she was happy, now she was dead and she raged, surrounded by the cruelty of the world.

She was a good girl, or she had been. She went to school like she was supposed to. She went to bed on time, and even stopped picking on her little brother when she was asked. Sure, she wasn't good all the time, but she was good most of the time and that was what's important right?

On that night Kimika remembered being angry, but nowhere near as enraged as she was now. She had run out of the house after a pointless fight with her mother about something she couldn't even remember now. She remembered running into dark street, how it had lit up so brightly and so suddenly. There was the screech of tires, a blinding pain, and then she stood over the broken ragdoll.

How they had cried that night, a terrible wailing of grief. She couldn't understand why.

Desperately she tried to talk to them, to apologize, but they continued to ignore her. She cried and begged and pleaded, but they were so mad that she had gotten that girl run over that they pretended she didn't even exist. It wasn't until the day of her funeral that she began to understand.

Then she began to feel the pain in her chest as her severed chain of fate started to devour itself.

She broke a lamp then, and they were afraid.

As the chain that had linked her to her body grew shorter she began to grow angrier. How dare they ignore her like this? Wasn't she good enough to be heard anymore? Why were they so sad when she was the one who died? Didn't her grief matter too? Why had they driven her into the street in the first place? Shouldn't they have caught her?

Except they didn't. They let her die. They let her die and now they were packing up her things like she didn't even exist. That had been the last straw.

She lifted her little brother up without even touching him ignoring the frantic screams of her parents. Wishing someone else to hurt for a change, willing and even eager to inflict her pain on others. Desperate for someone else to talk to, anyone else. Maybe she'd just kill them all so they could be one big happy family again.

She focused on her brother's head, and slowly she began to twist.

A soft knock on the door broke her concentration. She dropped her brother like a hot stone. Her mother raced toward him and covered him with her own body and ignited Kimi's rage to new heights.

The door opened as she lashed out with the refrigerator and a stopped cold as an invisible force blanketed her family.

Eyes dripping with white ichor, she turned to face the interloper.

He was a tall, but lean young man who looked to be in his early to mid twenties. He wore a black three piece suit of fine make that matched his long dark hair. His eyes were a piercing, almost vibrant green. Had she lived to be a few years older she would have considered him handsome in a plain kind of way.

What bothered her most was his smile. How dare he smile when all the world was cold.

When her mother finally opened her eyes she stared at him with a look akin to hope. Her father started to rise, to cry out a warning or a threat to this stranger, but he merely held up a hand with that same infuriating smile of his.

"I believe you called for a medium?" he said as if it were the simplest thing in the world.

Her father could only nod wordlessly, shell shocked by his current circumstances.

"Good," his smile impossibly brightened as he comfortably navigated the ravaged house of broken dreams, "I hate walking in on the wrong house. You wouldn't believe the look I get," he helped her mother and brother to their feet having the audacity to walk right past her and led them back into the corner with her father.

By not Kimika had had enough. She lifted the fridge again and hurled it at the of of them. Her mother screamed, her brother cried out in fear, and her father tried to shield them both.

Except, instead of becoming a greasy stain on the floor and walls like they should have been and joining her like they were supposed to. The stranger lifted his hand and the five hundred pound appliance bounced off another intangible yet unbreakable wall and crashed to the floor spilling it's contents everywhere.

Then he stared right at Kimika Takahiko.

"You need to be careful with that, or someone is going to get hurt," he said quietly.

"What are you?" she snarled in both shock and anger," This isn't your house. Get out!"

A shard of glass flew at his exposed throat and shattered before it even got close.

"This isn't your home either Kimi," he said in that same sad tone.

"**LIAR!**" she roared as white foam collected at the corners of her mouth. She hurled what remained of the table at him which he deftly sidestepped as he stepped closer," This is my home! This is my family! I won't let you take them from me!" she screeched.

"They're not yours to take Kimi."

"Sh**UT U**p! Get out of here! Just L**EAVE!"**

"Not until I've taken you home," he said.

Her fury was palpable now, a dark and ominous aura through the house.

She reached out to pull his lying tongue from his head and he caught her wrist in his hand with a grip of iron.

"And I'm not going to let you take them either."

"**THEY'RE MIIIINE!**"

She doubled over and vomited a thick white ichor in the ground. She cried out in fear as as rose up like a nightmare and began to strangle her. Her vision went dark, her bones ached, her skin was stretched to the tearing point. She screamed, a terrible warbling cry of hunger and madness.

The unwelcome stranger pulled back his arm and slapped her. Her head jerked to the side as the beginnings of her mask shattered. She turned back at him with one tainted gold eye and one clear blue eye.

"W-where? Why?" abruptly she sniffled, her rage evaporated with her mask, it was a sound that tugged at his heart.

"You can't be here anymore Kimika. I think you know that. If you stay you're just going to become a monster that devours everyone around you. You'll know only hunger and pain and it will never stop. You deserve better than that now don't you think?" his smiled returned, a bit dimmer.

Hot tears began to flow," But m-my family-y..."

"They can't move on without you. If you stay here it's only going to get worse. Look at them is this what you want?"

Kimika hiccuped and looked at her family. Her dad was bleeding heavily from his leg and cradling his wife and son. Her mother was whispering frantic prayers to both God and the pleas to the stranger. Her brother was crying uncontrollably and had soiled himself.

They were alive, something whispered as her anger spiked.

The man laid a warm hand on her shoulder,and that part of her cowered.

"No," she whispered. She fell to her knees and cried, the sound of her voice a pale outlet for the pain in her heart. She cried and she cried, but she couldn't overcome her guilt or her grief.

The warm stranger held her the whole time. Eventually she stopped.

Kimika wiped her puffy eyes,"What do I have to do?" she sniffed.

He placed his hands on her shoulders," Close your eyes. When you open hem you'll be safe. You'll be in a better place."

She nodded, then bit her lip.

"Will you tell them I'm sorry?"

"Of course."

She peeked just once, there was flash of black, then she was flying.

Kimika Takahiko smiled.

**Karakura Park**

A young husband and wife pushed their infant's stroller through the sunny, winding path that led to the playground. A cool breeze tempered the normally hot weather this time of year and murmured quietly with the green oak leaves. The clouds drifted lazily enough to block out most of the sunlight's burn but not to cover the bright rays completely and overcast the sky. The drinking fountain had been recently fixed and another added to cut down the lines on the hotter days. Parent's lifted their squealing children up to drink the cool water and then took a swig themselves. The young family waved to a few of their friends and strolled over.

One could almost say it was a picturesque day

The large ogrillion hollow looked in anticipation at what would be their latest meal. He swiped a paw across his fanged mouth as a gallon of drool dripped down in a fetid splash. His yellowed eyes narrowed beneath a low brow. He hunched forward and rested on his clawed knuckles much like an ape if they grew to the size of a large bus. He sat plainly in the open less than a dozen yards away, they couldn't see him after all, though their scent was maddening.

Next to him was an abominable cross between a reptile and a bat who was hardly bigger than the children they were about to eat. A serpentine tongue flicked from it's maw and it's sharp eyes scanned the area. What he lacked in power, the Ogrillion thought proudly of hmself, he made up for in speed. Rendwing, as he had taken to calling himself, was adept at picking off fleeing stragglers.

The third beast was low to the ground on four wide-set legs and it's craggy skin was a dull blue gray. The beak-like mouth was set on a rounded head fused with a long neck. The armored back was thick and jagged, having fended off countless attacks from it's brethren. He resembled every bit a monstrous tortoise.

Today he was going to see how the two "new recruits" performed in a typical slaughter situation. If they could follow orders he would consider keeping them around to eat later or throw to a reaper and make a quick escape. If they performed poorly though, he would simply eat them both right away to further his own growth.

The Ogrillion turned to his two underlings, who were barely considered part of the hollow evolutionary chain, having only just learned to talk, and told them his plan.

"Rendwing you'll circle from above and make sure no one gets away. There's only a few of them here this early so don't screw up," he finished dangerously and turned to the hollow tortoise," Shell snap you'll charge them from the left as I hit them from the right. If you both do your jobs we'll eat well enough for a week. Don't screw up!" he growled.

The three monsters braced themselves, then burst from cover with a roar of conquest. To the spiritually unaware humans they simply felt an unearthly chill in their air from across the clearing.

Despite his looks Shellsnap was surprisingly fast he kept neck and neck with Ogrillion with Rendwing, who had evolved for speed, trailed barely behind them. Just as Shellsnap was about to veer left and circle around to box them in he changed course directly in front of the Ogrillion and sent the larger hollow sprawling down into the dirt. Rendwing, a coward at heart, stopped short in midair and whirled around to see what was keeping him from his meal.

"What the hell are you doing?" the Ogrillion roared as he spit out a mouth full of dirt. A quick glance confirmed his fears. While the humans couldn't see them personally, they could surely see the collateral damage they caused and that spill had caused a wide rend in the dirt.

He turned again to the tortoise to reign him in, but his chance was already lost. That was it he was eating him when this was all over

Then his senses tasted what had captured Snapshell's attention.

She was bouncing along the path through the park completely oblivious to the world around her as whatever she was listening to blared in her ears through a pair of cherry pink earbuds. Her ebony hair cascaded down her back in ringlets and bounced to the tune she whistled through heart shaped lips. Hey honey colored eyes drank in all before her with a merry twinkle. She was tall for a female, topping six feet, she flitted through her spins and twirls like an dancer but was lithe like a runner, she was curvy in all the right places, but modestly so. Her beauty was enough to turn the eyes of even the most faithful of men, much to the rolling eyes of their wives.

All of this was secondary to the hollow though. This morsel was spiritually aware, which meant she smelled as good as a full course buffet to a starving man. No wonder Snapshell broke formation like that.

Ogrillion was still going to eat him though, after he had eaten her. He toward her with frightening speed, but wouldn't make it in time.

The monstrous tortoise neared the target and extended his beak like a shark would it's jaws in anticipation of the first bite.

The ape-like Ogrillion had to dodge to the side as the tortoise flew past him in a smoking heap. He stared, stunned, as the female brought her gloved hand, where had she gotten that, to her lips and blew off the excess reishi in a shower of blue sparks.

"Heya boys," she grinned.

No wonder she smelled so good, the bitch could see them. Hell she could even fight them apparently.

"What the hell are you?" he growled and subtly tasked Rendwing with ambushing her with a few jerks of his neck.

"Oh you talked," she said mildly surprised," wasn't expecting that. You've been eating your own kind," she waged her finger," naughty, naughty."

The Ogrillion found her to be insufferable.

Rendwing swooped in expecting an easy victory against the distracted female.

Giving the Ogrillion a great view of how she killed.

In a quick flash of light she manifested a glowing blue bow as tall as she was, primed a shining arrow and fired. The projectile blasted straight through the flying beast and he disappeared in a puff of black ashed.

"That's two down," she said casually as she strummed her bow.

"Are you always this cocky?" he snapped angrily to cover his mounting panic.

"Just with the ones I know I can kill," she said in all seriousness.

The Ogrillion felt an uncharacteristic drop of moisture trail it's way down his neck.

The beast bolted toward one of the children on the edge of the group. In one fluid motion he scooped him up and whirled around to present him as a human shield. She was fast though, barely three feet away and with an arrow already drawn. The boy was in his hands already though his jaws above the lad's head.

"Release your bow or I bite his head off."

She growled low in her throat, but did as she was told.

A low dark chuckle escaped his throat as the brat squirmed and screamed. His mother rushed over to help but the Ogrillion backhanded her away. She didn't get back up again.

The woman watched on in grim silence.

"Kneel," he smirked.

She slowly got down on her knees and glared at the hollow.

He threw the brat away and lunged for the much bigger prize with a triumphant roar.

And bit into the armored hide of Snapshell.

The female jumped up and over and drew back and arrow,"You really think I was stupid enough to come alone?" she smirked and fired.

The Ogrillion was smarter than the rest though, and wrapped his meaty paws around the rim of the traitor's shell and pulled him up as a shield. The arrow bounced off and exploded against the dirt. He threw the turtle away and reached out mere inched from his prey

It's body gave a sharp jerk as his head bowed from a sudden weight.

It's mouth opened and closed several times without a sound. It's eyes crossed in an effort to see what had hurt it so. It's failing ears caught the last few snippets of conversation.

"I told you both several times to always keep your eyes on your enemies. Give them an inch and they won't just take a mile, they'll take your life," he said grimly.

"Yes master," the female said in a resigned tone.

"Good, now flip over Takeo and let's go home. Apparently you both need a lot more work today if you can be this lazy on an op."

There was a flash of steel and black, then darkness.


End file.
